- Nice
- (86)
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France
There is a stunning array of tea and coffee and amazing cakes and pastries in this little café and salon de thé. Beautiful decorations and friendly staff add to the effect.
7 Rue Saint François de Paul, Nice
www.maison-auer.com
For quick and tasty street food on the go, try Sur La Pouce.
The moustachioed owner is friendly and chatty - go a second time and chances are he'll remember you.
To get a real taste of classic Nice food go for the assiette Nicoise. It gives you all the classics on one plate: stuffed vegetables, courgette flowers, sardines etc.
On Rue St Francois in the Old Town
It is one of the recommendations on this site: www.nice-city-vacation.com/nice-restaurant.html
My HUGE tip - stay in Nice Old Town soak up the sunshine and then hop on a train to go and whizz down the pistes in the alps! It's way closer than you think, and great value - a skiing holiday on the med? Yes!
Range of accommodation from studios and two/three bedroom apartments with sea views on the beachfront. Three or five bedroom villas in Nice or Cannes for all budgets for your summer holiday or winter break on the French Riviera. Personal and friendly service with airport pick-up on arrival with guided drive to your holiday apartment.
Tel +12066005710
www.riviera-rental.eu
www.riviera-rental-france.com
There are hundreds of estate agents along the French Riviera. I have dealt with these in the recent past and my experience was very positive. They are fully registered estate agents, so the buyer is protected.
They don't do rentals themselves but can put you in touch with property managers who can organise a great apartment to rent for a week or so!
Just a quick tip. Hope it helps someone.
This is a fairly new restaurant, at least it wasn't around last time we visited, but we could have missed it. It is on Rue de Prefecture and it serves traditional Nicois dishes.
It is quite small and cosy with some tables outside. It's always busy and we'd highly recommend booking a few days before (we had to try three times before we got a table). It is a much better experience than the tourist trap of the Cours Saleya, and just two streets back.
Rue de Prefecture
A very reliable, friendly rental service run by Matthew, Gale and Annina. It is the third time we have stayed with Nice Pebbles and we can't recommend them highly enough. Part of the job is easy since they are promoting such a great place, but you can't fault their commitment and attention to detail on the apartments we have stayed in.
The new tram has finally arrived in Nice. It runs eight km from Las Planas to Pont Michel, stopping in between at Gare Thiers, Jean Medicin, Place Massena and up to Place Garibaldi.
The cost per journey is a standard fare of 1.30 euros. You can also get a day pass for four euros entitling you to unlimited travel for the day. You can buy tickets at any of the self-service stations where you catch the tram.
The journey from Place Massena to Pont Michel takes approx 16 minutes and there is a tram every four minutes during peak times and every eight minutes off-peak. Trams run from 4 am until 2.30 am the next morning.
For more information go to:
www.tramway-nice.org
www.lignedazur.com
Over the last couple of years several of my friends have bought places in Nice and Cannes. Their experiences have been varied but we all wanted to recommend one bunch of people - Totally Riviera. They're not an estate agent, but they act for the buyers in the same way that estate agents act for sellers. And their service (which has been faultless - nothing less than brilliant) is absolutely free. I thought I'd mention them here because although it's not their core business, they also know a lot about rentals along the Riviera. If you want to rent or buy in Cannes, Nice, or Villefranche you could do far worse than contact Dennis and the team. Fast, friendly, open, honest and fun to deal with.
Botanical park near the airport. For only two euro, you can stroll around its various environments and admire all the amazing plants. A tropical hothouse includes an aquarium and iguanas. Worth a visit anytime for a budget urban nature fix and terrific for passing a couple of relaxing hours prior to check-in.
405 Promenade des Anglais
+33 (0)4 92 29 77 00
opposite Nice Cote d'Azur airport
The new owners of bar Antoine in Rue de la Prefecture have certainly changed the place; it’s cleaner, more sophisticated and with a less varied menu, but: it is still a very French atmosphere with lovely food and good service.
Try the Parma ham freshly sliced to order in front of you. The duck is good too and the truffle risotto to die for. It’s still one of the busiest restaurants in Old Nice, a place where every other doorway leads to a restaurant, so book a table and enjoy.
Rue de la Prefecture
Make sure that you know a certain amount of French and where your destination is because you will have to fend for yourself. Be very exact because certain places have similar names. Don't get tricked by taxi drivers.
Also, if you decide to go to Monaco, or any other city for that fact, please take the train because I took a very scenic six-hour walk there and my feet didn't thank me. Besides, you will see more than I did because I was on a tight schedule, but I still managed to see a reasonable amount.
For people who follow F1, if you want to visit David Coulthard's restaurant, it is called Knights of The Round Table at the Columbus Hotel. The Food is wonderfully exquisite and the prices are very very reasonable.
For a good party or night clubbing leave the over-priced, pretentious and decidedly uncool Cote d'Azur and travel over to Italy where you can dance until dawn at classy well decorated spacious venues to great DJs/live music with a stylish and friendly crowd.
Way better than Nice/Cannes where you can pay over 50 euros a drink to sit in a tiny over-rated hell hole, listening to shite minimal techno, surrounded by boring arrogant rich w**kers and professional bitches.
San Remo, Ospedaletti...
Oldest seafood cafe in Nice. Eat moules, oyster, lobster and shellfish platters. Wash them down with delicious white wine/whisky.
Great place to eat in the afternoon after sex.
Plaza Garibaldi
Save on a night's accommodation (and your carbon footprint) by taking the sleeper from Paris.
The overnight train from Paris to Nice is a brilliant way to get to the south of France on a budget, save yourself the cost of a hotel room for the night, and protect the environment.
So when you've reached the French capital on Eurostar you can get the TGV or SNCF south. It's great fun as well.
The CF de Provence is the last mainline narrow gauge railway in France. It runs daily from Nice to Digne leaving at 9am and arriving just in time for a memorable lunch in the station buffet at Digne.
Don't worry about missing the train back, the driver is in there too! It gets back to Nice at 5pm. The scenery is spectacular and the trains and stations enchanting. It's cheap and if you're over 55 or a student (or une famille nombreuse) you will get a big discount.
Go in February when you can leave a spring-like Nice and be in the depths of winter in 30 minutes with giant icicles and snow fields. August is lavender festival time.
The new neat station is in the rue Alfred Binet in Nice, just behind the original (now abandoned) art nouveau station which is being converted into a new town hall for Nice, but judging by how long they are taking to finish the trams, don't hold your breath.
Leave Nice and travel east five kilometres to the delightful town of Villefranche-sur-Mer with its deep natural harbour and wonderful selection of seafood restaurants.
Note the splendid Baroque church at the top of the hill and wind your way down the medieval streets to the amazing chapel by the sea, lavishly decorated by Jean Cocteau and dedicated to fishermen in the area who initially refused to enter because of the flamboyant naked male angels painted on the walls.
If you like Cocteau's work, travel onwards to Menton to a very camply decorated registry office and a wonderful museum, containing a huge Cocteau collection.
A laid back, small town in the Roya valley hard up against the border with Italy.
Easily accessible by train from Nice and surrounded by beautiful hills perfect for exploring by foot or cycle.
Great entry point to the Mercantour National Park.
The town has its share of interesting buildings including an ancient bridge and the baroque Saint Michel cathedral set in an impressive town square.
With plenty of places to eat well Sospel is a peaceful haven away from the hectic coastal area.
This hilltop town above Menton claims to be the highest coastal town in Europe at 780m above sea level, although even with a catapult you'd struggle to dive into the ocean from here.
The views over Menton, Monaco and the surrounding valleys are truly fabulous and there are at least a couple of restaurants to admire them from.
The town is only 20 minutes drive from Menton, or less from the corniche roads and motorway, but feels off the beaten track.
For the adventurous, try climing to the old XII fort and medieval garden at the top of the town which are in a shambolic state of disrepair.
The town contains numerous vaulted passageways and you can admire beautiful houses dating back to the XV century, with their magnificently restored doorways.
For those looking for more recent history, the town is the entry point for a tour into what remains of the Maginot Line fortress.
The restaurant with the best views in town is Le Righi, 1 place du fort, 06500 Sainte-Agnès. Reservations are recommended and can be made on: 04 92 10 90 88.
Sainte Agnes is 10km north of Menton. Menton is near the French-Italian border.
Map: tinyurl.com/37mx5l
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